Eddie Harrison

Dr. Eddie Harrison was a scientist who resided in Monongah and the developer of the Vox syringer.

Background[]

Dr. Harrison was a mad scientist whose pre-War projects included the "Infant Interpreter," which would translate infants' speech patterns into something parents could understand, though he found no willing test subjects. He was often mocked and not taken seriously, a factor into missing a romantic opportunity with a woman named Elaine.^[1][2]

Eddie's work lasted even after the bombs dropped, continuing to seal himself in his basement despite previous jeers from other Monongah residents. In February 2080, he started to write conversations with himself on his terminal around the same time he began spiraling into alcoholism.^[3] When he sobered up, Eddie lamented his lack of social skills and decided that getting drunk would reveal some "wisdom" for his questions about life.^[4] This "experiment" saw the drunk Eddie writing that his previous failures were caused by being "too chicken scared to approach anyone to ask."^[5] This message reminded the sober Eddie (who quickly ended the experiment) of the Infant Interpreter, which inspired his next project: taking the same fundamental idea, but applying it to animals instead. For Eddie, this would eliminate the need to interact with humans ever again.^[2]

To do this, he created a syringer that used darts to transmit animal brain signals to a recording device, which would translate the animal's thoughts into an English estimation.^[6] In November, he finally completed the Vox syringer, having survived raider attacks on Monongah and outlived the "nitwits" in the "miserable town," as he described them.^[1] However, a mutated squirrel bit Eddie during the testing phase, causing a fatal injury. Knowing that he would soon die, Eddie left his work for any other survivors to access it, encouraging people to not let opportunities pass them by and to be brave. He commented that the world can be very lonely, especially after a nuclear war, but the idea of his work being completed after his death gave him hope for the future.^[7]

By 2103, a raider named Caleb Fisher tinkered with some of the interpreters he found at Eddie's house. This resulted in a vox collar, which allows for both humans and animals incapable of speech to produce understandable words.^[8] The formerly mute raider Weasel ended up using one collar to overcome her disability.^[9]

Appearances[]

Eddie Harrison is mentioned only in Fallout 76.

References[]